


Caught In The In Between

by FlummoxedFox



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26384470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlummoxedFox/pseuds/FlummoxedFox
Summary: "How do you know you're normal?" Naruto asked quietly looking down at the Fourth's Head. The passage of wind accompanied his answer. "Everyone is normal, son. There are only quirks about us that make us unique." Naruto shivered at the apparition's words. "Son?"
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto
Kudos: 12





	1. Prologue

**Prologue**

**One Hour After the Kyuubi Attack**

“What do you think?” Sarutobi Hiruzen asked one of his most trusted students.

“Everything is normal. His vitals are fine; heart rate is a bit fast but that is to be expected since he _is_ a Jinjuriki. A fresh one too.” Tsunade, a busty medic, sighed looking at the child playing in the crib beside her sadly.

“He hasn’t cried once, not even when I found him. Tsunade, that’s not normal.” Jiraiya cut in. “And he’s just staring into that corner, giggling, like someone’s there.”

“Perhaps we should allow a Yamanaka to examine him,” Sarutobi questioned.

Tsunade sighed. She opened her mouth to speak but a giggle stopped her. The medic looked at the bundle of joy beside her.

The boy, Uzumaki Naruto, was reaching for the corner as though it would pick him up. “Maybe it would be best.” She said. “They can see through the patient’s eyes. Right?”

“Yes, although I’m unsure of the effect as he is just an infant.” He mused.

Another giggle paused the conversation before the doors opened slightly. “Lord Hokage.” Inoichi Yamanaka said carefully stepping in. “Pardon my interruption, but the council wishes to know if you plan to execute little Naruto.”

The two Sennin tensed. A pause followed. “What do you think I should do?” Sarutobi asked.

“I believe that he is no more a demon than a snapdragon is a lily,” Inoichi said. “Although, I am concerned.”

“About?” Sarutobi asked.

“You plan to give him to the orphanage. I overheard the Headmistress earlier making plans to lynch him with a few others. That type of environment… is not only dangerous but also not conducive for a child’s mental state.”

“I cannot send him to live with a clan. It would yield far too much power to them.” Hiruzen sighed.

“Then I’ll take him. He’s my godson.” Jiraiya said making a silly face at the boy. His attention caught by the corner, he paid no heed to him. Jiraiya quirked a brow.

“You’re essential to this village’s spy network. It’s impossible for you to simply take him with you.”

“He’s my grandson,” Tsunade said suddenly. “There’s no reason for me not to take him. Kushi-chan would’ve wanted it that way.”

“I’m sorry Tsunade,” The old monkey sighed. “As much as I would love for you to have him I cannot take you away from the hospital. Especially with all the work you’re going to have to put forth for the medical school you want to open.”

This surprised Tsunade and Jiraiya alike. “You’re going to let me open it in exchange for my grandson’s safety?!” She yelled fire in her eyes.

“Do not take that tone with me. Neither of you can have him. I know it is unfair and downright cruel, but he must stay a ward of Konoha. Normally this would be a clan matter but his status as the Jinjuriki of the Kyuubi means that he is a part of the village forces nearly automatically. Unfortunately, he is a weapon foremost, one that can’t simply be given to one clan, no matter the ties he has to them. Do not think; however, that you both won’t be allowed in his life. He will need all the love he can get in the coming years, the life of a Biju container is hard, and I will not allow him to be burdened alone. He is just as special to me as he is to you, after all. I will make sure he is safe in the orphanage. Besides all of that, this village needs more medics for the coming years along with shinobi. Young Naruto’s safety is important; however, where we stand with the other nations has to take precedence.”

“I never knew appearances were so important to you, old man.” Tsunade seethed.

“They are not.” He sat back with a sigh. “However, if the other nation’s catch wind of our weakness, they will invade and there is no longer someone as strong as the Yondaime here to save us.”

Tsunade slouched in her seat. A slight pause came over the group before Hiruzen stood. “Inoichi please look through Naruto’s eyes.”

“May I ask why?” The Yamanaka responded.

“Since the moment he came into this world, he has not cried once. Not even during the sealing as far as we can tell. I think that whatever he is seeing has kept him from it. I want to know what.” Hiruzen said.

“I see.” Inoichi turned to the woman. “Where are his fontanelles?”

“He doesn’t have any,” Tsunade said. “He’s a Jinjuriki. He may not even be an infant in a few days. He’s resilient, advanced, and, apparently, a lot less work.”

“Good I don’t have to worry about it,” Inoichi muttered approaching the crib.

As though snapped from a trance, Naruto looked at Inoichi for the first time. Inoichi was met with intelligent blue eyes that seemed to stare into his very soul. A shiver ran through him as he froze up. He stared into his eyes.

“Inoichi?” Jiraiya called noticing the tension first. When he did not respond, Sarutobi called him.

“What’s wrong, Inoichi?” He asked going to him.

A soft giggle broke him out of the intense staredown that seemed to have cropped up out of nowhere. It left the mind walker reeling. He gasped as he fell back as if slapped.

“Inoichi!” Jiraiya caught the man in surprise. Inoichi continued to pant. “What’s wrong?” He said turning him to look at him.

“K-Kami-sama!” He yelled out of surprise. “He’s… he’s… he’s…” He stuttered.

Jiraiya did slap him that time. “Get a hold of yourself Inoichi!” He bellowed, fear for the boy taking over.

However rough the wakeup call was, it worked. The blow snapped him out his senses as if it was his alarm. “He’s been touched by her!” At once, he rushed out, hurling himself back away from the child.

“What are you talking about?” Tsunade asked concern lacing her tone.

Unlike the rest of the contents of the room, Hiruzen immediately understood. “Inoichi, you may leave. You may not speak to anyone else about this.”

The man rushed out of the room, stumbling as he went without a word. The aged leader turned to his two remaining students. His expression was grave.

“What was that about sensei?" Jiraiya asked casting glances at the now struggling child as he tried to get on his stomach.

“What I’m about to tell you has only been seen once before in Konoha’s history.” Hiruzen began. “Once long ago, a blue-eyed boy came to the village. He was an orphan and was taken in by one of the many minor clans. It became apparent that he was special, so they brought him to me. I could not understand what was wrong; he simply held the ability to deflect attacks seemingly out of nowhere. It is unique but is not an unheard-of prospect. That boy as you may have already guessed was Minato. Naruto’s father.”

I was soon visited by Kami-sama herself in my dreams. She told me that she had bestowed this ability upon him and he was to be protected personally by me until he birthed his first son. She told me her ability would fade once that was accomplished.” He explained.

“Kami-sama has touched Naruto with her holy powers in the same way it appears. I am not sure the extent of it but that matters not. The last time something like this occurred, it was with his father. She presented him with her own shield. Only she knows what Naruto can do.”

“So she’s given him some great power?” Tsunade shouted in disbelief and anger.

“Yes although if the stories about her ‘gifts’ are true they don’t really seem like gifts,” Hiruzen said glancing nervously at the child who was now trying to crawl out of the crib. “Only an hour old and he is crawling,” Hiruzen muttered. “I’m replacing the mistress at the orphanage with a retired shinobi who will understand his condition. We will not speak of this until the gift has manifested. Understood?”

“Fine,” Tsunade said still taking in the fact that Kami had touched the boy sitting beside her.

Silence filled the office. The only sound that perforated the walls was the sound of screaming civilians.

“Kill him!” They yelled.

Jiraiya sighed. “May Kami help him.” He muttered offhandedly.

“I’m afraid she already has,” Hiruzen replied.


	2. In The Beginning

**Chapter Two**

**In The Beginning…**

**Twelve Years After the Kyuubi Attack…**

**Mission To Wave**

Blue eyes watched in morbid fascination as the senbon made completely of ice sailed towards him in slow motion. His entire world condensed into that one moment and he couldn’t stop it. Haku’s aim was deadly and he was sure he would not make it, not when he was already weakened. He cursed himself for going in to this fight without thinking but Sasuke had been in trouble and he had no time to plan his attack. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto watched the boy land in one of the ice mirrors nearby.

Just as the sticks of death (as he fondly named them) were inches away a shadow fell upon him in the form of Sasuke. The needles punctured his skin as though he was a pin cushion. As he fell to the ground the air in Naruto’s lungs escaped in one long gasp.

No. Not Sasuke. He was his teammate. His rival and dare he say friend. How could he just die in such an anticlimactic way? Jumping in front of him to save him when his wounds were already healing. How could he? A terrible sadness fell upon him and suffocated any hope he had of saving his friend from the darkness that plagued him.

Life froze as the blond stared at the prone figure. Tunnel vision took over as the image was ingrained into the back of his retinas. Slowly, everything faded as if the lights had gone out and very suddenly he found himself facing two cold blue eyes. Floating in what seemed like a snow-covered wasteland, dazed and somehow far too relaxed, the blonde could do nothing but stare.

“So, you have finally come to me. It has been far too long… Naruto…” a deep voice echoed forth. The blonde took in the rest of what he was facing. Fangs, a white and black pelt that seemed to glow and snow. Around him, it fell in slow strides towards the ground. Everything seemed so peaceful he almost forgot what had occurred a moment before.

“Who are you?” Naruto asked slowly.

“I am a piece of your soul. One that was sealed away along with the fox long ago.” Its voice rang out. His mind was now working a mile a minute and panic set in. There were no bars to hold this being back. He could strike out at him in a second and all Naruto could do was watch.

As the blonde attempted to find a way out of the situation the snow fell in increasing swirls and patterns as if reacting to his own panic. “Do not fear, Naruto. I cannot and do not wish to harm you. Such an act would be the equivalent of cutting my own heart out.”

“What do you want then?” Naruto asked, glaring at his presumed foe.

“I exist only to keep you safe, dear King.” The leopard began to circle him. “To do so you must open your eyes; all will be made clear later.”

“My eyes?” The blond questioned as the snow turned into a blizzard. Its fall impeded his vision, and all became white.

In the real world, Naruto’s body was wrapped in white just as Haku made a second attack. A pillar of pure chakra shot up into the sky. Before, fog covered every surface of the bridge but now the light blinded everyone. The beam broke the cloud coverage and more seemed to form around it. They circled around it ominously, a picture of foreboding in and of itself. The sky was dark, and lightning echoed in the distance. The temperature around the bridge fell dramatically.

Against the darkening sky, the beam was so bright Kakashi immediately covered his Sharingan in fear of going blind. Zabuza stared, shocked at the power surge. “What the hell!?” He screamed, barely heard over the mighty roar.

 _‘Is that… no the Kyuubi was far more malicious. But this… this is just as terrifying.’_ Kakashi surmised, slightly less nervous knowing it wasn’t the Kyuubi but not comforted that it was an unidentified power seeping from his student. _‘At least if it was the Kyuubi I would know where it was coming from, this on the other hand, is something uncharted. Damnit Naruto…’_

Even he shook at the shear amount of chakra pouring out from him. Tazuna and Sakura had been completely incapacitated as soon as it had let loose. Haku, being the closest had been blown backwards. The ice dome he had crafted was shattered and he was backing away as alarm bells went off in his head.

“What is he?” He muttered clutching senbon between each finger.

The beam subsided in that moment. Slowly fading out like the receding light of a flashlight. Amid all the chaos stood Naruto. Around him, chakra circled slowly. In one hand a **Shakujō** , with one end shaped in the form of a crescent; flung over his shoulder was Sasuke’s lifeless body.

Naruto’s eyes were their cerulean blue glowing so bright it seemed like they could turn anyone caught in his gaze to ice. In the next second, he stood beside the now conscious Sakura and deposited his closest friend’s lifeless body beside her.

Tears sprang to the pinkette’s eyes. “H-he’s…?” The question stuck in her throat. She brushed the hair out of the raven’s face.

“No.” Naruto uttered, turning to the front of the bridge. “Get ready they’re coming.” His voice was full of cold fury. There was no love in the quiet, yet audible tones.

Confusion swept through everyone at the bridge. Who was coming? Even Zabuza took the moment to look past the blond twelve-year-old as a crowd of gangsters and thugs broke the tree line. Standing in front of the small army was a short, grayed man in a business suit.

Gatou, the business tycoon that had hired the missing nin to dispose of the ninja and Tazuna, stood in front and began laughing manically at the rest of them. Everything he had been planning was coming together with this shitty island. All he needed to do was get rid of these shinobi and it would all fall into place.

Kakashi glanced at his now comrade. The two analyzed the situation in milliseconds. They were no longer foes. They nodded at one another and marched on towards their wards.

Zabuza motioned for Haku to get ready for a new fight. Kakashi was worried for his team. They were young and ill prepared for what would come. _‘Granted’_ , he thought, _‘I was their age when the last war happened and there was much more carnage.’_

That aside Sasuke was incapacitated and Sakura was completely useless in a fight. Kakashi was suddenly met with how much of a failure he was so far as a teacher.

He shook those thoughts from his head as his gaze fell upon the stock still form of Naruto. He had not moved an inch since he had pointed out the large group of mercenaries. The unknown power seeped from him. Its essence entangled itself into the air and burned Kakashi’s skin like dry ice.

“Look at what we have here. Zabuza, I knew you couldn’t live up to your name!” The short, grayed man laughed. “More like a baby demon aye boys.” The crowd laughed at the grinning tycoon.

“You backstabbing little imp!” Zabuza shouted.

“Oh, shut up you should’ve known that I would never pay you for your lack luster performance. Boys kill the men but leave the women. You all can have them once I’m done with them!” Gatou guttered out. The men cheered but before they could descend upon them the sound of soft bells chimed.


	3. We Were Strong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

**Chapter Three**

**We were Strong…**

One man fell. Then another. And another. The thugs hadn’t even registered that they were being attacked let alone that anyone had moved until nearly half of their forces were gone.

The bells chimed once more snapping them from the spell.

Blood pooled around their feet as they took stock of the bodies that suddenly were cooling beside them. What had happened? What monster had done this?

Kakashi was pale as he watched his student, goofy, loudmouthed Naruto drop unsuspecting men where they stood. No, this wasn’t Naruto. The fighting style was not his and the grace in which he moved definitely wasn’t something the boy was capable of. He lifted his headband and examined the fight with his Sharingan but all he saw was the boy’s own blue chakra swirling calmly within him. Somehow it sent shivers down his spine. Something was wrong.

Naruto stood still, almost surveying his work. As the thugs became aware of the fate that had befell their comrades, they began to back away, primordial fear taking hold.

Gatou’s heart was beating in his ears. He had seen all manner of beasts and monsters in his dealings but never had he been as terrified as he was in that moment. His personal bodyguards were nearly wiped out. All at the hands of a child. How could this be?

The frosty visage of the blond sent shivers through his very bones. Irrational fear conjured images of the Shinigami around him and as the blonde’s eyes laid upon his own it chilled his very soul. He was going to die here.

No! He ground his teeth and straightened.

He was Gatou! His very name struck fear into the hearts of man. No one was going to beat him, let alone _kill_ him. “What the hell are you doing?! Kill him!” He screamed.

The men around him hesitated but advanced on the blonde. With their paychecks held firmly in their mind as kindle for their courage, they converged on the blonde. However, instead of their weapons cutting through flesh, they met air. They gave pause at the new development.

The sound of softly chiming bells snapped heads to the direction of their boss. Naruto held the impish man by his throat above his head with one hand, his other arm was firmly planted in the man’s chest. His **Shakujō** stood beside him defying the laws of gravity. The silence that followed was deafening.

Finally, _finally,_ Naruto spoke. “You are a stain on humanity.” It was cold and matter of fact, a statement of observation. There was no hatred, no anger, just undisputed certainty.

Naruto removed his arm slowly and with it no blood flowed. Instead, a white phantom like Gatou emerged. Vaguely, everyone registered it as the shipping tycoon’s very soul as his body dropped to the ground. Gatou’s mouth was opened in a silent scream that would never be heard. His eyes held the now dim emotion of pure terror.

The blonde’s hand tightened around the ethereal figure causing it to shatter, then disperse in a thousand pieces that melted into the atmosphere.

The small group of mercenaries felt self-preservation ignite in them as they ran away from the monster before them only to run into the villagers who decimated the last of them easily.

At the bridge, Naruto stood in the same spot staring blankly at his hand as the last of the soul dispersed. The wisps of power that floated around him slowly disappeared like the settling of dust. Kakashi took a step toward him cautiously and faced him.

Naruto’s lip quivered as consciousness reemerged to the forefront of his mind. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. Dimly, a voice told him it was his duty but it pained his childish heart all the same. He suddenly felt exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep. His limbs gave way beneath him but Kakashi caught him easily.

“Naruto? Are you alright?” His sensei asked checking him over for wounds. Naruto met him with insecure eyes before he fell back into a world of snow.

Naruto shivered at the chill in the air, not because he was cold but because it somehow sang of his lost innocence. He looked around and glimpsed the outline of a hill with a ginkgo tree fully blooming despite the weather, sitting atop it. Just under that tree was the snow leopard from before. The blond hesitated but a pull in his heart forced his feet forward.

When he did make it to the beast’s side, he turned to look out at the vast wasteland around him. Nothing but snow and ice entered his vision and he wondered if this was really his mind. Everything felt so real. The feeling of snow melting on his skin, the way air whooshed passed. The only thing that let him know that the world around him was false was the fact that he was warm. Warmer than he had ever felt before and it was a comfort.

“That power… was it you?” He asked finally, unable to stand the silence any longer.

The leopard looked at him. “No, that power came from you.”

Naruto looked at him wide eyed. Never had he felt such a strong force before. He could admit to himself that he was weak compared to his classmates and that he lacked mentally what most found normal understandings. He also knew; however, that they had all had people to teach them. Naruto had to fight for every scrap of knowledge he had. Every scrap of strength. Ignoring that train of thought, he looked to his animal guide. “How?” he asked simply.

“You will learn the how and why later. At the moment, that is not important. What is important is learning to control your power. Without proper control, you will fall to chakra exhaustion each time.” He said strongly. “I will teach you everything you need to know about wielding me.”

That caused the whiskered boy to pause. “Wielding _you_? So that power, is you? How is that possible?”

“As I said before, I am a part of you. More specifically, I am a part of your soul. A representation of what lies deep within you. My name is Baransu No Ikari, you may call me Ikari.” Ikari stood and bowed low to him.


	4. And Then Kami was Angered

**Chapter 4**

**And Then Kami was Angered…**

Naruto felt as though he had been training forever and yet his body never tired nor did it hesitate. Ikari watched him as he went through each kata carefully swinging the **Shakujō** as if it was an extension of his person. He smiled to himself, pleased with his ward’s success.

They had been training for what was a year in Naruto’s mind but in reality, was merely a day on the outside of his body. He found that given the proper attention, Naruto learned quickly. This angered Ikari originally, simple explanations were enough for the boy to grow exponentially and yet none were given to him, not even by his most trusted sensei. He had pushed that emotion away, it did not matter. He was here now learning and Naruto held a great deal of potential.

He had explained to him exactly the nature of his power, that it was just like the snowy land before him. Cold, calculating and desolate, Naruto wielded the pure power of wind and water itself. The peak of elemental release, their will seemed to bend for Naruto. Once fully matured, he would be able to pull water molecules from the air around him and create vacuums large enough to swallow whole villages if he so chooses. Now, however; he couldn’t even think about the forces separately. Ikari had explained that the two were intertwined within him. One machine that was made up of two parts. He wielded something akin to Ice Release but was much more advanced. In the time spent in his inner world, he had learned to breathe life into frozen leopards, and create ice from the air around him. At the moment, he was learning how to control the power produced when he channeled the very nature of ice and snow.

He danced through the katas with the grace of a cat. He was nimble yet his movements held something cold; an absolute frigidness that cut through the air around him as though he held a sword and not the staff in his hands. When the young blonde slammed the head of the staff onto the frozen terrain, a crack appeared upon the surface which melded itself in the next moment, the action seemed to be the close of the deadly dance he performed.

“Very good, Naruto-kun, you have surpassed my expectations.” Ikari said padding up to his master. The grin that Naruto gave was nothing short of one thousand watts. “However, it is time for you to return.”

Naruto soured at the prospect. “But why? I’ve gotten so strong! I want to continue to train.” Defiance shone in his bright blue eyes.

Ikari growled at the boy. “You will return, however on the outside it has been a full day since you have moved from unconsciousness. Your team is worried.”

Naruto blushed at the mention of his team. He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head impishly, “I forgot about them…”

“The next you return here; we will work on you summoning me to the outer world.” That took the blonde by surprise but did not comment and simply nodded. The explanation would come in time.

“Alright see ya then!” He waved as the wind and snow picked up around him, obscuring his vision.

Kakashi watched the whiskered boy closely between training the other members of his team. It had only been a day, yes, but the boy had yet to wake and it bothered him. Perhaps it was because to see the boy sleeping so peacefully after decimating a small army caused him unease or maybe it was simply because Kakashi felt as this was only the calm before a storm. Nevertheless, he could not sleep as the rest of his team did.

He looked over the room they were in. It was the same they had been lodging in since they had gotten to Tazuna’s home. The only available room there, it was small and cramped especially considering it housed both Team 7 and Zabuza and his ward Haku now. Oh yes, they had insisted on staying with the group until the blonde woke, claiming to be interested in his recovery. Apparently, the show of power had greatly impressed the missing nin.

Upon hearing this, Tazuna almost had a stroke and protested having the man that was there to kill him originally under his roof. By the end of that conversation it was clear that Zabuza was simply doing a job and nothing more and since he was no longer working for Gatou, there was no reason for him to kill him. Not when he only wanted to meet the blonde formally.

Suddenly, the boy in question sat up. Kakashi tensed for a moment, but relaxed when Naruto yawned. “Man, I must’ve been out for a while…” he trailed off in a whisper, taking stock of the sleeping forms around him until they landed on Zabuza and Haku. Naruto pursed his lips and grunted. “I guess they aren’t our enemies anymore.”

He stood in one fluid motion and stepped towards the door silently. Judging by how heavily they were sleeping, Naruto surmised that they’d been sleep awhile, therefore it was very late.

He glanced at his sensei, finally noticing that he was awake and motioned for him to follow him out. They made their way out of the room and down the stairs. They took up residence in the kitchen where Naruto chugged a glass of water.

Midway through his second glass, Kakashi spoke, eyeing him suspiciously. “So are you going to tell me what happened? And where that staff came from?” He motioned to the long metal Shakujō he had carried down with him.

Slowly, Naruto wiped the remaining droplets of water from his mouth and pursed his lips. “I don’t know if you’d even believe me.”

“Try me.” Kakashi folded his arms.

“Well, you see,” the blond scratched the back of his head, “when I was fighting Haku and thought he had killed Sasuke, everything disappeared. One second, I was on the bridge facing down death the next I was in the middle of snow country! Except, it wasn’t snow country but my mind. I was staring down this leopard and then it was like something snapped inside of me. I felt cold but warm on the inside. Like all this power was flowing through me, everything slowed down and I could feel _everything_. Gatou’s army, Sasuke’s heart beat and all of yours’ too. Then that bastard said what he said about hurting Sakura-chan and then all I felt was frigid ice run through my veins. Then Ikari told me to protect everyone and things… got a little fuzzy after that hehe.” Naruto looked at his hands. “Then I killed them all.”

Jaded eyes looked at Kakashi and he couldn’t help but place a comforting hand on the blonde’s head. There was no doubt then, this was the same blonde that pulled pranks and was loud, just… a little less innocent. “Naruto you did well. You protected your friends and the client. As shinobi we are expected to take life, but we are also expected to save them. You did your duty and the fact that you feel grief over it proves that you are still human. The moment that changes is the moment you won’t be anymore.”

Naruto looked up at his teacher in surprise. It was true that he was stricken with the magnitude of what he had done but both Ikari and Kakashi-sensei had given him similar advice and it solidified his trust in both. “Thanks sensei.” He smiled warmly at him.

“No problem,” He eye smiled at the boy. “So, tell me who this Ikari is and where this staff came from.”

“Ikari is the snow leopard! And the staff… well I guess you could say that its him too. Ikari said that the emotional strain of watching Sasuke die caused the seal to loosen. Which is what its supposed to do!” He quickly added seeing the alarm in his sensei’s eye. “Instead of letting me access the fur butt’s chakra, Ikari pushed all his power out and pulled my consciousness in.”

“How did this… Ikari get into your seal? I’ve never heard of sensei having the leopard contract nor would the seal be able to trap a summons in any sort of seal. Are you sure it isn’t the Kyuubi trying to trick you?” Kakashi asked holding his chin in thought.

Naruto watched the man for a moment, letting his questions settle in the air like a blanket before answering. “Because he’s me and I’m him but not too.” Naruto looked up at him from behind his bangs, his statement a declaration more than an explanation and Kakashi was shocked.

“But how?” Kakashi persisted. “And how is he in your seal?”

“From what I understand, Ikari has always been with me. Even before I was born. When the Yondaime sealed the Fuzzball in me it also sealed off Ikari by accident. He’s the part of me that wants to keep fighting, my determination to protect. He’s all my rage and my love… he’s a balance.”

“What about the staff?” Kakashi asked mulling over the boy’s answer.

“As far as I know it’s the only way, he can manifest in the real world by himself. He can’t talk or anything, but his purpose is for battle.” Naruto explained palming the metal staff. “I kicked ass with him too.”

Kakashi shook his head at the boy’s usual antics, glad that he seemed his usual self. He didn’t have anything to worry about or at least he was less worried. Naruto was Naruto and that’s all he needed to know. Kakashi was satisfied with knowing that for now. “Get some more rest, you had chakra exhaustion. Tomorrow, we’ll be helping Tazuna with the bridge.”

Naruto nodded and sipped at his drink as Kakashi made his way back up the stairs. The blonde was shocked he had let the subject of his new power drop so easily but he figured Kakashi would at least inform the Hokage. That was something he wasn’t particularly looking forward to.

“So, you got some freaky beast sealed in you?” A voice echoed throughout the kitchen.

Naruto sighed and set the glass down. “Something like that.”

Zabuza materialized from out of the wall, annoyed that he hadn’t got the drop on the kid. “You knew I was here?” Naruto shrugged obviously not going to go into more detail.

“Why are you still here?” He asked instead.

“I’m going to train you.” Zabuza declared happily.


	5. And The Heavens Shook

**Chapter 5**

**And the Heavens Shook.**

Naruto was breathing hard. He wanted to succumb to the creak in his bones and collapse right there but the mortal fear he felt as he dodged another strike was far more pressing.

It had been a full day since he had recovered. Sasuke and Sakura had interrogated him about his staff and how he had suddenly become so strong. It lasted nearly an hour before Kakashi had pulled them downstairs to train and Naruto hadn’t missed the glint in his eye during the questioning as though he was punishing him.

Naruto rolled under a massive sword that nearly separated his head from his shoulders. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a couple strands of blond hair fall to the ground before refocusing on the sudden impact of a foot in his diaphragm. He tumbled to the ground, rolling to a stop on the other side of the large clearing they were in. He sputtered for a second before the hairs on his neck stood on end and he had to push himself up and away. He leapt into the air not unlike an animal and landed a couple of feet behind him on all fours. He had narrowly escaped being chopped in half.

Zabuza straightened and casually rested the absolutely _ginormous_ weapon on his shoulder as if it was a bat. Naruto stayed still for a second before launching himself at the older shinobi. He extended his hand outward, ready to claw the mans face. In response, Zabuza swung his sword horizontally. The whiskered boy shifted his weight and rolled under the attack before jolting upwards inside his opponent’s guard.

Zabuza lurched back surprised for a second before backhanding the younger boy’s punch away. “Maa, that’s enough.” Kakashi’s voice called. “It’s Sasuke’s turn.”

The relief Naruto secretly felt that the torture was over was enough to carry him over to his awaiting teammates. Of course, as soon as he was within a foot of them he collapsed in a heap. Sakura, who had been working diligently with Haku on what little medical jutsu she knew handed him a canteen.

Haku smiled at him. “Alright Sakura it’s time to apply what I showed you to a real body.” She motioned for Naruto to unzip his jacket. When he did, both girls were confused. They had seen the boy be assaulted brutally for the past five minutes. The wounds he sustained, though not life threatening, were still not something to be ignored. His clothes showed areas where the material had been cut clean through and were stained with his blood in some places, but upon closer inspection of his now bare torso and limbs all that was there were minor cuts and forming bruises.

Right before their eyes his wounds were closing up. Even those bruises were quickly forming before going through the process of disappearing. It was shocking to say the least.

“Why’d you ask me to take my jacket off, Haku-neechan?” Naruto pouted looking up at his close friend.

“Naruto… your injuries..” Sakura said awestruck. “They’re gone.”

“So?” Naruto asked gulping down more water. He swore he’d get that eyebrow less freak back for being so brutal in his spar. Honestly, it looked like he was being a little gentler to Sasuke, or at least not coming at him with the intent to kill the Uchiha.

Sakura and Haku both looked at each other in confused disbelief. “What do you mean so? Injuries don’t just heal within minutes!” Sakura yelled.

The Uzumaki paused. Then he looked at her oddly. He had always healed fast. He trained hard because of it, taking full advantage of that fact. Sometimes even dragging himself to his apartment after breaking a bone or two. A good night’s sleep and his injuries were usually healed. Poof, never to be thought of again. He thought that that was normal, but he had never had a reason to say otherwise. He hadn’t really been around people when he was younger besides in the academy, so he didn’t really have anything to compare his healing factor to. He was alone most of the time and when he wasn’t no one had ever gotten hurt while with him. Except when he graduated… when Iruka had been injured. The chuunin had spent the night in the… hospital. Weren’t that what that place was for? Healing people who were hurt or sick? Naruto had also never given that place a thought since he had never had a reason to visit it. He had never given any of this a thought actually, just accepting things as they were and choosing to remain ignorant. He had needed to focus on more important stuff like becoming Hokage. Now that it had been brought to his attention, though, he was confused.

“You don’t heal like that?” Naruto asked.

Sakura was flabbergasted. What the hell did he mean in asking such a dumb question? “Of course not and you shouldn’t be able to either!”

“Oh…” he said and took another sip of water. For a moment, he pondered what made him so different before he slapped himself. Kyuubi.

Haku was coming to a very different conclusion. She had watched how he went from confusion to understanding and the way he hadn’t realized that he had an advanced healing factor. It meant he had probably had it since before whatever that power surge was on the bridge. She wondered if he had a bloodline.

“Is it a bloodline?” She asked grabbing both genin’s attention.

Naruto blinked for several seconds before slowly nodding. “I guess you could say that.”

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course, it was, why hadn’t she thought of that? Oh, right because Naruto was the dead last orphan. She winced at herself. Those thoughts were becoming more and more prevalent. Or maybe she was becoming more aware of them. Either way after watching her teammate _slaughter_ hundreds of mercenaries in the name of protecting his teammates had shattered any and all misconceptions she had. He had showed he truly cared about his comrades. She could at least treat him well.

“Only you wouldn’t realize you had a bloodline.” She shook her head playfully.

Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. “Dobe has a bloodline?” Sasuke panted flopping down beside them. Naruto stuck his tongue out at him as he handed him the canteen.

“Naruto’s wounds healed within minutes!” Sakura said. Sasuke’s head swiveled to the blonde.

He eyed him for a second. “Tch, good. He gets his ass kicked so much maybe now he can take it.”

“Hey!” Naruto cried.

“That’s enough you two. Sakura, heal Sasuke so that you can spar with Zabuza next.” Kakashi called lazily from his perch in a nearby tree. He had of course been listening to the group but chose to listen to the outcome instead of immediately stepping in. If things looked like they would get uncomfortable for the blonde he had prepared the very same excuse Haku had given. Still nothing had prepared him for the way Sasuke had reacted to the news that his teammate had a bloodline. The cyclops thought he’d be upset, instead he had brushed it off, but he had also noticed a change in his team. They were far more receptive and open towards each other. They were forming friendships and he was incredibly relieved.

Truthfully, Sasuke had reflected on why he had shielded his teammate from the spray of senbon. He hadn’t cared before, or at least he thought he hadn’t. Upon further review he realized that he sort of liked the blonde’s personality. His pranks had been funny and though he could be annoying and loud those instances were becoming fewer and fewer. Sakura had even stopped fangirling long enough to start studying medical jutsu and didn’t flinch at the prospect of sparring. That had relieved him the most. He had found when she wasn’t squawking about how awesome he was she wasn’t so bad, however, it had only been a day so he reserved his opinions until further notice.

Naruto was silently relieved with Haku’s convenient out. He had considered telling them his secret, but he knew he had to ask his Jiji first. He was slightly annoyed at Sasuke’s joke but he was just floored that he had the ability to joke at all considering the stick that was shoved up his ass. He watch Haku give Sakura pointers on the **Mystical Palm Jutsu** and he found that he enjoyed the calmness. They had defeated Gato and liberated wave, found some new friends and the bridge was nearly complete. Everything had worked in their favor and he was glad.

One thing still bothered him though. Naruto folded his legs and brought his hands together in front of him. He allowed his mind to calm as he delved deep into his mind just as Ikari had showed him. Instead of opening his eyes to the winter wasteland he knew well, he came face to face with angry red eyes.

**“So, my container finally deems me worthy enough to visit.”** The Kyuubi’s deep voice reverberated throughout the room.

Naruto’s gaze landed on every surface of his mindscape. He wondered how this part of his mind was so different than where Ikari resided but decided he would save that question for later. He focused on the large mass of orange fur and claws behind the bars that extended far up and out of sight. He took a step forward in the murky water around him.

“Kyuubi.” Naruto started then stopped. He considered him for a moment. “Ikari told me about the night of your attack. That you were being controlled…”

Kyuubi growled **. “You know nothing of that night.”**

“Yeah yeah I get it. I can’t remember anything so I can’t understand blah blah blah. That’s not why I’m here.” Naruto said grinning up at the fox.

**“Then why have you come.”** The Kyuubi growled.

“I’m here to introduce myself and maybe get your name. I’m Naruto Uzumaki!” He held out his hand, sticking his closed fist out. “And I’m hoping that you’ll be my partner!”

There were too many things to unpack in that statement. The Kyuubi was shocked that this boy had offered his hand to him, that he wanted to know his name, and offered him a partnership instead of him simply siphoning his chakra from him. He wouldn’t admit it but he was impressed. The Kyuubi, afterall, wasn’t a malicious, mindless beast. He had emotions and centuries of knowledge. He had watched humanity begin to use chakra to kill and mistreat each other. Humans were greedy and nothing could change his mind about that… except here was his container offering him a partnership. Wasn’t that the sort of spirit he had been waiting for? What his father had asked him to look out for? Still, he had to be sure.

**“When you ascend to the pinnacle of strength, what will you do?”** he growled.

Naruto grinned up at him. “What a dumb question! I’ll protect everyone.”

**“Even if you must kill to do it?”**

Naruto frowned and dropped his hand. He looked down into the murky water before looking up with steel blue eyes. “Sometimes… sometimes talking doesn’t solve everything. Sometimes people just want power for the sake of control and sometimes people just want to hurt people. So, I have to be able to… kill… for the sake of my precious people.”

Kyuubi stared down his nose at the human boy. His father would be happy to know that, finally he has found a suitable candidate for his legacy. Kyuubi lied on his stomach before the blonde boy and raised his fist to him. Naruto’s eyes widened before he grinned and touched fists with Kyuubi.

**“You may call me Kurama.”**


	6. A Hero Emerged

**Chapter Six**

**A Hero Emerged…**

Team 7 plus two stood at the newly built bridge. The entirety of Wave stood facing them. Bittersweet exclamations were yelled out about their departure and quite a few people were holding back tears.

“Promise you’ll come back and visit okay Onii-san!” Inari said hugging Naruto tightly.

“Yeah yeah, of course I will. I have to make sure you’re not slacking off, don’t I?” the whiskered boy asked. Inari beamed up at him.

“Come on, Dobe.” Sasuke called exasperated by the display of affection, though his voice held no real bite to it.

“I’m comin teme.” Naruto through back. “Well, I gotta go see ya guys later!”

Naruto turned and ran back to his team. He inserted himself between Zabuza and Sakura, waving back at them all.

“Well what should we name the bridge?” Someone called out from the crowd.

Tazuna grinned. “I know, how about the Great Tazuna Bridge? Named after yours truly.” Tsunami slapped her father on the back of the head.

“How about the Great Naruto Bridge, after the boy who gave us back our hope?” Everyone cheered affirmations at that and smiled.

“Are you sure I’ll be given asylum in your village? I’m a wanted man kid.” Zabuza asked as they ran.

“Course you will! Especially since Jiji owes me a huge favor.” Naruto yelled with a grin. They, besides Kakashi, were all left wondering exactly who this mysterious Jiji of his was to be able to sway the Hokage so easily. They would find out very soon as they were only half a mile away from the village gates.

Upon entering the Hokage’s Office, the ANBU that were previously following them discreetly mostly dispersed, save for two who joined the rest of the ANBU tasked with guarding the Hokage. Kakashi mentally rolled his eyes as even Sasuke glanced at one of the corners they had settled into. The ANBU were getting sloppy. He’d have to talk to the current captain of the division, maybe he could even get some good training in himself.

The cyclops returned his attention to the Sandaime who looked carefully passive as his attention swept through the small group.

“Team 7 back from Wave, Hokage-sama.” Kakashi said with a slight bow. His genin and the two tag alongs followed suit though Naruto seemed a bit confused at the action.

“Kakashi please explain to me why you have brought an A-rank missing nin into my office.” Sarutobi commanded casually.

And so Kakashi began the debrief if a bit nervous of his leader’s reaction. “You should have turned back immediately or at least called for reinforcements. Your team was not ready for an A-rank mission.” The old monkey scolded. Kakashi felt shamed at that. He knew he could have lost any one of his kids. Considering he had the last Uchiha and the Hokage’s surrogate grandson on his team, if that had occurred, he doubted he would still be living much less a Jounin. He shivered at the thought.

“I understand Lord Third.” He bowed his head in shame.

“We’ll discuss a fitting punishment later.” Hiruzen leaned forward on his steepled hands. “I assume, Zabuza, you wish to join my village?”

“Yes, Lord Hokage.” Zabuza had to admit he was terrified. He had heard stories about the God of Shinobi, and he wasn’t someone to disrespect. Even now he could feel the cold stare of the leader. He may be old, but he wasn’t a Kage for no reason. Anyone who dared to disrespect him would most likely be dead before they finished their next sentence.

“You’ve been assisting in the training of team 7 as well. I suppose that gives you a hand up in my decision. However, there is little you can bring to my village. In fact, taking you in might even put a strain on our relations with Kiri. The better and safest route would be to ship your body back to Kiri.” Zabuza steeled himself and he couldn’t help look at the blond boy beside him. He could gut him, to think he could be killed just because he had listened to this idiot.

Naruto’s face remained in a pout. He had seen the Hokage in action plenty of times in his childhood. He knew how terrifying his Jiji could be. He had been on the receiving end of some of his most awful rages because of his more malicious pranks. He imagined that Zabuza was at the very least nervous, so he decided to step in before his Jiji could give an official judgement.

“Oi come on Jiji let him stay. He’s been helping Kakashi train us!” Naruto took several steps forward so that he was right in front of the man’s desk.

Everyone in the office was floored besides the ANBU and Kakashi who had seen similar scenarios play out all too many times before.

“Naruto, he is a missing nin. He could be plotting to overthrow me, just like he did with the Mizukage.” Hiruzen sighed, rubbing his head.

Naruto looked at the sword carrying ninja critically for a moment before turning back to the old monkey. “Come on! You can definitely take him! Besides, he wouldn’t do that, he knows about… you know,” the blonde motioned to his stomach with his eyes, “and he hasn’t even tried to kill me yet! That would’ve been a huge tactical advantage right there so I doubt he would do something crazy like try to kill you.”

Hiruzen’s eyes narrowed and looked at Naruto. Those unfamiliar with the two’s relationship assumed that Naruto was about to be at the very least stripped of his rank, at the worst killed for disrespecting the Hokage.

“I suppose I could take the risk… besides I do owe you that favor.” He muttered the last part with a gentle smile. “Alright, but Naruto we need to have a talk about addressing me correctly during official business.”

“Thanks Jiji!” Naruto grinned at him completely ignoring his last comment.

“Zabuza it appears that Naruto has taken quite a liking to you, so I will grant you citizen into my village, but,” The room’s atmosphere grew heavy with killing intent, “if you hurt anyone in my village I will not hesitate to execute you.”

Zabuza gulped and bowed. “Of course Hokage-sama.”

“You will be given three months’ probation in which you will be monitored by ANBU. Today you will meet with our head interrogator, Ibiki, and when you’re cleared you can begin your duties as a Jounin. Neko will accompany you for now.”

The ANBU in question materialized out of no where beside the former Kiri shinobi and showed him to the door. Haku went to follow but the Hokage stopped her.

“Haku-san do you wish to continue learning medical jutsu? Or would you like to be a standard ninja?” he asked with a puff of smoke from his pipe.

Haku was surprised he had given her any sort of choice. She couldn’t help the smile on her face as she replied. “I would like to become an iryo-nin, Hokage-sama.”

“Then I will talk to my student at the hospital. She might be willing to allow you to join the upcoming class.” He said.

Haku bowed to him. “Thank you for your recommendation, sir.”

“A-ano, Hokage-sama… could I also participate in the program? Haku has been teaching me some of the things that she knows and… well…” Sakura trailed off nervously.

The Hokage smiled at her. He was very proud to see the young girl begin to flourish into a splendid young kunoichi. “Hmm, why don’t you and Haku take Naruto-kun to the hospital to see the program’s head? I’m sure she would love to see him.”

The three genin were surprised to note that Naruto would know someone so high up in Konoha’s bureaucracy. “But for now will you three wait outside while I talk with Naruto and your sensei?”

His question was said as an inquiry but was meant as an order. The three genin who gave their teammate one last look exited the room and sat on the sofas outside next to the secretary’s desk.

“What do you think they need to talk about?” Sakura asked.

“Besides the fact that Naruto just bribed the Hokage? Maybe it’s about that power at the bridge.” Sasuke shrugged.

Sakura nodded slowly. “Yeah you’re probably right.”

“Did you two know that he was close to the Hokage?” Haku asked after a moment.

“No way, I can’t believe he calls him that! I mean my mother once said that he favors Naruto, but I didn’t know he was so lenient.”

Sasuke remained silent as he listened to the two. He turned his head to the door and wondered what they were really talking about in there.

“So, Naruto. Tell me more about this... Ikari.” Hiruzen said leaning against his desk. Was this the moment he had been waiting all these years for? Ever since that moment in his office he hadn’t been able to look at the boy without wondering what the future would hold. Was this the gift Kami had given him?

Naruto looked uncomfortable for a moment and began explaining. “Well Ikari was sealed inside of me with the Kyuubi, but they aren’t the same.” He said quickly. “Ikari is a part of my soul. He’s a representation of me. He has always been with me even when my heart first began form within my mother.”

Hiruzen’s eyes narrowed and Kakashi stiffened a bit at the last part. “Naruto, has Ikari given you any information on the identities of your parents?”

Naruto looked conflicted for a moment. “He told me who my mother was. He doesn’t feel I’m ready to know who my father is yet.”

His leader sighed and crossed his arms. Even if Kami herself had sent Ikari, it would be dangerous to allow him to spread that information around. “Naruto, I don’t have to tell you how important it is that you keep this a secret do I?”

“No. I know that she had a lot of enemies and I’m her son so I will most likely inherit her problems. I… don’t think I’m ready to deal with that right now.” He said looking up at the old monkey.

“Good. Now, I doubt that Ikari is truly the Kyuubi pretending to be someone else. The seal on your stomach wouldn’t allow for such a thing. Is there anyway that you can summon him to this realm?” Sarutobi asked.

Naruto suddenly gave them a vulpine grin and closed his eyes. He looked deep within himself, passed his chakra and into the world of snow and ice. Ikari had anticipated the Hokage’s request and had planned for it. He had to concentrate on Ikari’s presence and pull it forward into the staff, using it as a conduit. It had taken him days to figure out the right amount of chakra to use but he could do it easily now.

He opened his eyes and took a step away from his staff that remained standing despite nothing holding it up. Kakashi’s eye narrowed at that and tensed as did the very cautious ANBU. Hiruzen continued watching his body tensing as well.

Right before their eyes the staff condensed into a ball of black metal. Then it began to expand, for a moment the contents of the room, besides Naruto, began to back away but soon it took shape. Soon it took the form of a human. He was tall and slim but muscled. His features were regal and strong. His eyes were blue, nearly silver but the look in them was animalistic, dangerous. His white hair that was tinted blue fell in a fierce mane around his head. Despite the color of his hair and eyes he would easily be mistaken for an Inuzuka.

He bowed to the Hokage and the older shinobi relaxed a little at the action. “Hello, Hokage-dono.”

Naruto grinned at his grandfather, obviously proud that he had completed the difficult task of bringing the leopard there.

“I thought that Naruto said that you were a leopard?” Hiruzen asked with a frown. This was uncharted territory. He wanted to know more about this power.

“I thought that you would be more comfortable speaking to me in this form.” The newcomer said.

Hiruzen nodded his acceptance. “I see… Naruto says that you are a part of his soul. How is that possible? You seem to be an independent entity.”

Ikari smiled demurely at Hiruzen, “Much like the Yondaime created artificial ties to the Kyuubi’s and Naruto’s soul, we are tied. The difference is my consciousness was born from Naruto long ago. I suppose I am independent but only in the sense that my memory is longer and far more complete than his.”

“How much longer?” Kakashi cut in.

“I am absolutely ancient.” Ikari chuckled sitting on one of the couches closest to him. He stretched himself out like a cat.

Hiruzen pondered that for a moment. It was confusing when he looked at it from up close, which was why Naruto’s explanation was so lacking. He probably didn’t understand fully what was going on. He had a suspicion but he didn’t have the full story.

“You are the **Shakujo** he carries and you are sentient.” Hiruzen said slowly. “What powers do you hold?”

“You do not understand, I was birthed from his power. The full extent of it was so… potent in needed a vessel to contain it safely within his body. I am that vessel. Though we seem separate we are both one soul.” Ikari corrected. “We carry the very essence of wind and water, for now.”

“For now?” the cyclops asked.

“Did you honestly forget how Gatou’s life ended?” Kakashi tensed as images of the man’s final moments passed through his mind. Naruto looked away at that. He hadn’t remembered much of that moment but still the terror in his eyes was the only thing he needed to recall. “His soul was forever taken from the cycle of reincarnation.”

Hiruzen was shaken. He looked from a confused Naruto to relaxing figure sitting upon his couch. Kakashi had explained that in the heat of the battle on the bridge, Naruto had pulled out a paler version of Gatou from the man’s chest. Ikari had just confirmed it to be the man’s soul. There wasn’t many instances in history where that had occurred in fact there was only one man capable of such a thing.

“Perhaps I had pushed out more power than I meant to then but in any case what you saw was still only a fraction of his true potential. Naruto’s powers will continue to grow stronger within him. I am meant to be a balance within him, to keep his mortal body from being torn to shreds by his more… divine strength so that _he_ may bring balance once again.”

“There is only one staff in history that could hold such powers,” the old Kage began, “but you have repeatedly stated that you are tied to his soul… that would mean…”

“I see you have caught up.” The fair skinned man stood and stretched. “I believe then that I shall return to rest until Naruto calls upon me again. Kakashi-san train your team well, they will need it in the coming months. Oh, and Hokage-dono,” Hiruzen looked at him with a bit of amazement, “You should begin training again as well. Everyone in this village should.”

Hiruzen tensed and nodded, taking note of the thinly veiled warning. Something was coming very soon.

Naruto for the most part had remained silent not because he had decided to allow his companion to explain everything but because he had only really kept up with half of the conversation. He understood that they were tied to each other but Ikari was talking as if he knew him long before he had been born. Like he had been simply waiting for him to return from somewhere. The conversation was strange because it felt like whatever they were talking about wasn’t meant for him to understand. Like they were talking in a secret code and he got the feeling he wasn’t meant to know yet. He sighed to himself as Ikari stood in front of him. He was a part of him and honestly if Ikari was really as old as he seemed than he knew better than anyone what was best for Naruto especially since he _was_ Naruto in a sense.

“Naruto, give me your hand.” His partner requested. Naruto did so without any hesitation. “It is not feasible for you to carry me around openly. I will be giving you access to a pocket dimension to house my other form. This will hurt so brace yourself.” Naruto was about to protest before the older man sunk his teeth into his palm. The blond yelped at the pain in surprise but Ikari vanished before he could express his distaste.

Hiruzen and Kakashi were both too shell shocked by the revelations to stop the leopard. When they did look Ikari was gone and Naruto was cradling his wounded hand. Naruto examined it as the wounds closed and what looked like doodles appeared. “What the heck is this?”

“It’s similar to sealing scrolls. When you want to remove the contents you must push chakra into it and when you want to place items into it you must do the same.” The old Hokage answered tiredly leaning back into his chair.

Naruto tested it a couple times before becoming satisfied. “Cool!”

“You’re dismissed Naruto-kun. Please keep everything we talked about a secret for now.” Hiruzen sighed. He jotted something down on a piece of paper before handing it to him. “This is an official recommendation for your two friends. The room number you’re looking for is 432-F. Though she’s probably making her rounds.”

“Okay Jiji! Thanks a bunch!” He said and rushed out the room, dragging his awaiting teammates with him.

“Now about your punishment…” Kakashi couldn’t help but gulp.

Naruto was excited to see who the head of Iryo ninja program was and subsequently had made the trip to the hospital into a race. Once they finally stopped at the doors of the hospital, Sasuke glared at his friend.

“Baka you didn’t have to run so fast!” he hissed panting. Sakura was thanking Kami for the training they had been going through with Zabuza as she wasn’t as winded as she would’ve been without it.

“I’m going to throttle you, Naruto.” She said with her hands on her knees before taking a deep steadying breath.

Haku smiled at the blonde’s enthusiasm. “Neh, sorry Sakura-chan. I’m just really excited!” He gushed. “Come on we have to go to room 432-F!”

He took a step in and was mindful not rush in as his teammates might scold him more if he tried to leave them behind. They made their way up several flights of stairs until they made it the fourth floor. Surprisingly, there wasn’t many patient rooms there but instead several offices and one had a secretary sitting outside it, one that Naruto immediately recognized.

“Shizune-nee!” Naruto screeched before leaping at the woman before anyone could stop him. The woman looked up startled for a moment before smiling at the incoming missile.

Alas before he could make contact with the dark-haired woman, the door flew open and he landed right into the chest of a young blonde woman’s impressive breasts.

“Naru-chan!” She yelled hugging him tightly to him.

“Can’t breath!” came a muffled reply.

The group was startled by the appearance of the woman before them, even more so that _this_ was who the Hokage meant. Suffocating their friend and teammate was one of the Legendary Sannin, Tsunade Senju herself in all her glory. They were all wondering how he knew her, first the Hokage and now one of the Legendary Sannin? What was going on?

Naruto pinched her on her under boob and she dropped him. He took a breath of fresh air before being smacked on the head with the force of an ox. “You brat where are your manners!” The older blond yelled.

“Maybe if you hadn’t tried to kill me, I wouldn’t have pinched your boob!” Naruto yelled back his vison still swimming from the blow.

Tsunade made to respond before Shizune stepped in. “You two we’re in a hospital. I’m sure the patients on the floor below can hear you fairly well.” She sighed.

“Naru-chan where have you been? The last time you visited you had just graduated.” The blonde asked ignoring her assistant.

Naruto had the decency to look abashed. “I’ve been with my team… I totally forgot in all the excitement. Sorry Baa-chan.”

Sakura chose this time to break into the conversation. “Naruto do you know who you’re talking to!?”

Naruto looked confused for a moment. “This is my Baa-chan. Well not really my Baa-chan but basically.”

“Brat what have I told you about calling me that!” Tsunade cut in.

“But Baa-chan!” Naruto said making his eyes bigger and a pout forming.

The three teens viewing the spectacle were both awed and confused as the powerful Sannin member bent to the puppy dog eyes. “Aww Naru-chan!” She ruffled his hair and he smiled at her fondly. “Introduce me to your friends.”

Naruto immediately turned to his teammates. “This is Sakura, Sasuke and Haku! We’re here ‘cus Haku and Sakura wanted to take lessons to become Iryo-nin! Here’s the recommendation from Jiji!” They all bowed nervously.

“You mean you only visited us to give us more work?” Shizune joked with a smile as Tsunade read over the recommendation. It appeared that Haku had some experience with the art and had been teaching Sakura in the last couple of weeks.

“I didn’t know you guys worked here!” He whined.

Tsunade was looking at the two young women before her critically. “You two,” The two girls snapped to attention, “why do you want to become med-nins?”

Haku answered first. “I want to heal, not injure.”

Sakura blushed as the older blonde’s gaze met hers. “I-I want to protect my comrades and be able to stand beside them equally.”

It was true since the mission to Wave, she had felt completely worthless. She had barely contributed to the mission at all, she even had become incapacitated at one point. When ever she thought about it, she wanted to become better and stronger. She didn’t want to be the weak girl that sat on the sidelines.

Tsunade smiled at them. They both had solid reasons to want to take part in the program. To save and protect was the basis of their oath. Haku would go far in the program. Sakura on the other hand, reminded her of herself. All those years ago she had wanted to stand beside her teammates and feel as though they were all equal. Jiraiya had taken an interest in fuinjutsu and Orochimaru had become adept in ninjutsu. She had found solace in the healing arts and had even improved her battle capabilities because of her need to be just as good as them. That same desire was written all over Sakura’s face.

“Haku, I will give you entry into the upcoming class. You’re a little advanced but that’s fine. A refresher is always good. I’ll give you the schedule tomorrow come back at six a.m. and don’t be late. As for you Sakura, the courses that you want won’t help you reach your dreams.” Sakura looked as though she would cry and Naruto was about to protest when she continued, “I was like you once so I know, you don’t want to be a regular Iryo-nin. Being a combat med nin is hard and a lot of people only learn the basics of combat medicine before going on to specialize in something else. We only have one class that specifically trains combat med nins and it has already started.”

Sasuke frowned at the woman that was causing anguish to his teammate. He glanced at his blonde teammate who was looking at the woman suspiciously before he smiled at his pseudo grandmother. The raven relaxed a little but was still took a step toward his other teammate who was nearly in tears.

“So I wonder if you would be interested in an apprenticeship?” Tsunade said with a smile.

Sakura’s eyes widened and she leaped toward the Senju giving her a hug as she did. “Yes! Thank you so much!”

Tsunade was surprised both at the gesture and at the amount of strength the girl was putting behind though she doubted the girl was really aware. On the inside, she was laughing evilly. The pinkette had a lot of potential to inherit Tsunade’s monstrous strength. Shizune hadn’t wanted to learn the technique behind claiming it simply wasn’t her style but Sakura would take to it like a fish to water she was sure.

“Come on, get off now. Be here at the same time as Haku and be prepared to work harder than you’ve ever worked before.” She said tearing the girl off her.

“Of course Tsunade-sama!” the two girl bowed and bid their teammates farewell before leaving.

Sasuke followed suit planning to find Zabuza and ask for some more training. That left the two blondes and Shizune to catch up. Naruto told them all about his mission but left out the parts about Ikari. When questioned about the tattoo on his palm he simply said they had to ask the Hokage. They accepted this answer and told him that he should come back to the Senju compound after they finished here for dinner, which Naruto quickly agreed.

When Naruto left the hospital he decided that he could still get in a bit of training before he had to go and meet back with Tsunade and Shizune so he made his way to the training grounds. He decided he would try to race to training ground as fast as he could as part of a warm up.

He was running so fast through the forests that separated the training grounds from the rest of the village that when three figures suddenly launched themselves out up and out of the coverage he couldn’t stop himself from crashing into one of them. The two went tumbling towards the ground. Thinking quickly, he adjusted both of them so that they rolled safely to the ground instead outright falling.

“OOF!” he grunted upon impact. When he opened his eyes he found the figure he had crashed into to be Hinata Hyuuga. Her eyes were closed and her face was slightly scrunched up as Naruto examined her. He had never been so close to her before, assuming that she had hated him just like most of his academy class. He had to admit she was really pretty. He blushed at that thought.

Her eyes opened and when she focused on him she turned bright red. She leapt off of him and began stuttering apologies. He was confused. Every Hyuuga he had ever met had been an ass, but she was apologizing to him when it was all clearly his fault.

“Ano… Hinata, that was definitely my fault. _I_ should be apologizing to _you._ ” He said uncertainly.

Her mouth shut and her fingers came together in front of her. “N-Naruto-kun… i-its okay-ay.”

He blushed at the honorific. “Uh…” Naruto was confused as to what to say and that puzzled him. He had never come across anyone that shut him up. I mean he was _known_ for never shutting up so to be lost for words was knew to him.

He was about to ask if she was okay when three other figures appeared from the tree line. “What the hell you bastard! What the hell were you running so fast for? Watch where you’re going next time.” Kiba yelled as he checked his teammate over for injuries much like a mother hen.

Naruto felt a twist in his gut upon observing that which fueled his anger at the feral boy’s words. “It’s not my fault you guys popped up out of nowhere!” He yelled, getting up and dusting himself off.

Kurenai couldn’t help but sigh at the loud genin before her. Naruto had obviously not meant to tackle her student but Kiba was acting as though he had targeted the young girl purposefully. She was still working on his aggressive tendencies when it came to what he considered pack but there was still a long way to go. “Kiba, that’s enough Naruto didn’t mean to bump into her. Hinata are you alright?” The heiress shyly nodded her head.

“Bump into her? More like tackled her! He could’ve broke her neck!” Kiba raved with Akamaru yipping at his master to quiet down.

“K-Kiba-san, it’s okay h-he didn’t m-mean t-to…” she trailed off.

Naruto sported a blush as he looked at the girl before him. His mind went back to the honorific she used with his name and he wondered why she hadn’t used it with her teammate. For some reason he felt a spark of joy run through him.

As Kurenai set to scolding Kiba for his rudeness, Shino took in how quiet the usually loud boy was. He should be accelerating the situation with the Inuzuka and yet he was blushing at his shy teammate. He wondered if this was the first time they had interacted.

“A-ah sorry Hinata. I really didn’t mean to run into you like that. I was warming up on my way to my teams training ground… and well I didn’t see you guys and so… um…” he trailed off.

Hinata simply nodded not trusting her voice. “See Kiba, everything is fine.” Kurenai sighed, noting quietly the awkward exchange and how eerily similar the two looked. _‘I wonder…’_

She was just as familiar with the blonde Jinjuriki in front of her as anyone else in the village but that didn’t mean she agreed with what they said about him. Sure he was loud and pulled pranks but that was to be expected given how little attention Konoha as a whole seemed to give him. Considering her ward was practically in love with the boy, she doubted she could be anything less than friendly to him and by the he was looking at Hinata, she doubted this would be the last time they would be together. “Well Naruto-kun you had better be on your way. We’ve still got some training to do.”

“Ah right!” he said scratching his head. He gave one more glance at her female student before jumping into the trees. She grinned; she would definitely look forward to this. She wondered if she could arrange some cooperative training with Team 7 in the near future.


	7. Ragged and Lost

**Chapter Seven**

**Ragged and Lost….**

Blonde hair bobbed in front of thoughtful blue eyes as he made his way throughout Konoha. Flanking him were his two teammates. At the present time, he was dragging them towards his apartment. Though he seemed calm and determined outwardly, inside he was frantically talking to Ikari and Kurama who were both quite amused.

It had been three days since Naruto had crashed into Hyuuga Hinata in the forests and he had yet to wipe the image of her scrunched-up face from his mind. He had had several rather confusing dreams about the encounter and had caught himself daydreaming about her more than he would like to admit. Normally, when something bothered him to this degree, he could put it out of his mind and pretend it didn’t matter but somehow, he couldn’t let it go. This brought him to his current situation.

He had tried to talk things over with Ikari and even had gone to Kurama about his thoughts, even going so far as to merge the two worlds that seemed to exist inside his mind for easy communication between the two beings within him. They had both summarily refused to give him some sort of ‘talk’ and had told him that if he wanted the answer to his problem than he would have to ask someone in the real world.

Now here he was dragging Sasuke and Sakura back to his apartment so that he could talk to them privately.

To their credit both were only a little put out with the blonde’s behavior. He had told them to meet him in front of the ramen stand he frequented and had suddenly dragged them all the way to the outer most parts of the village. The only thing that stayed their tongues was the fact that they had both noticed that the blonde was on the receiving end of the worst glares and whispers they had ever seen. Sasuke remained silent, observing the way the villager’s eyes were trained on the blonde before him. He listened intently as they whispered about his teammate, claiming that Naruto was dragging them to his den to murder them and that they should inform the closest shinobi they saw and things of that nature. Sasuke was alarmed that they believed such things about his friend.

Sakura didn’t notice the glares until they were nearing the market. It was busy around that time and everything was loud and bustling. Personally, it was a comfort considering both her parents were important merchants themselves and she had grown up walking these streets. The friendly atmosphere was so welcoming, and she smiled and waved at some of the shop owners she saw. Suddenly though, when the crowd of mostly unaware civilians collectively parted as they passed, it was no longer as welcoming as before and it had Sakura doing a double take.

Sure, the crowds were still bustling, and things were mostly normal, but the atmosphere was different and the way the crowd gave them a wide berth was nothing like she was used to. The looks they were getting were also out of character, as her green eyes looked around with the precision of her rank, she noticed they were all trained on Naruto. The glares and whispers were like knives to her and they weren’t even directed at her. It was suffocating and Sakura had never felt this mounting unease before. It wasn’t like when they had first encountered Zabuza, no it wasn’t that kind of terror. Her life wasn’t in danger, but this was… stifling, like she was being judged and executed all at the same time.

She turned to look at Sasuke, hoping he felt it too and she wasn’t going crazy. He looked back at her with the same type of confusion. They both turned to the blonde to ask but they were met with a totally unaffected demeanor. Naruto was chewing the bottom of his lip as he pulled them along his eyes unfocused as if he were in deep thought. It was as if he didn’t even notice it all, but they both knew that Naruto wasn’t so dimwitted. If they were being honest, Naruto had the best battle instincts out of all of them. He had always been good at moving his body where it needed to be with little to no problem as if it was instinctual, so they doubted he simply didn’t notice the hostile atmosphere.

When a cart suddenly came careening towards the blonde who was leading them through the crowded streets faster than should be normal, Sakura was sure it was a deliberate attempt at maiming Naruto. She had caught sight of a figure who quickly moved out of sight after launching the cart. She made to shout at her seemingly unaware teammate, but Naruto had already stopped the cart and was dragging them out of the market with muttered curses about clumsy merchants and their ‘magical runaway carts’.

When both the raven and the pinkette had come out of their shock they were already in the seedier part of town. The part that both of their parents had urged them to stay away from. They held their tongue, when Naruto glared at a kid who was coming too close to them and told him to ‘pick marks that weren’t shinobi,’ and they nearly blanched when he waved at a woman who seemed to be entering a brothel, because suddenly they were seeing a side of Naruto that they had never seen before. They filed the information away for later and both promised each other to talk to their sensei about this once Naruto was finished with this little meeting.

Finally, Naruto turned down a side street and went up some stairs before entering an aging building. Sasuke pursed his lips at the smell of the apartment building. It was… moist and he had to wonder if the walls had mold in them. Sakura looked at the peeling paint on the eggshell and in some places brown walls. The place wasn’t outwardly dilapidated, but she got the sense that it needed some work.

As they continued up to the third floor, they noticed that the hallway seemed like it hadn’t been cleaned for some time. Like no one had been up there in a while. When Naruto finally let go of them, it was to open the door to one of the rooms.

Naruto’s apartment was scarce when it came to both furniture and rooms. There was the living room and the adjoining kitchen and two doors. His teammates assumed it was the bathroom and bedroom respectively. Besides the refrigerator and stove, he had one couch that looked like he had pulled it from the dump, a coffee table and a dining table with two chairs. The door to his bedroom was open revealing what looked to be a small bedroom with only a closet and a bed that also looked like it had come from the dump.

Being in Naruto’s apartment was startling. Saying that it was a humble abode was too kind. They had to wonder if Naruto had always lived like this. They both had come from more stable backgrounds. Sakura’s family were high up in the merchant’s guild and Sasuke’s family had had a seat on the council and had ran the police force before they had been killed so they were both well off. Seeing that their teammate, the bright and bubbly blonde, was for lack of a better word poor was jarring to say the least. It was so at odds with the way he seemed and yet it sort of made sense. Memories of lunches in the academy suddenly came back to them, remembering how Naruto had always either sat on the swing without food or with Iruka who routinely bought him lunch. They also recalled how Naruto had always had the most worn equipment. It suddenly all made sense and they felt bad that they not only picked on him and ignored his existence but hadn’t even noticed the condition Naruto’s life was in. They looked at each other and nodded. They hadn’t been there for him before, but they were definitely there for him now.

“Alright,” Naruto said putting some tea on like his jiji had taught him. He had been totally wrapped up in his own world that he had totally ignored the way his teammates were analyzing his life. He turned to look at them, surprised at the determined looks in their eyes. “Ne, you guys… what’s wrong?” he asked confused.

“Nothing, Naruto. Why did you bring us here?” Sasuke asked changing the subject.

Naruto gave them a suspicious look before latching on to them. “I have a big problem!” they blinked in surprise as he launched into a long-winded story about how he ran into Team 8, more specifically, Hinata. “I tried to apologize but then it was like the words died in my throat! And she called me Naruto- _kun_! And then my stomach did this weird thing where I felt like I had just ate a bird and it was trying to get out!” As the blonde talked more and more one thing became abundantly clear. Sakura stared in confused relief at the boy in front of her. Confusion because it was obvious, he didn’t understand that what he was feeling was a crush, which was weird because hadn’t he been crushing over her the entire time, they had known each other? And relief because this meant that if she played her cards right then she would be relieved of his crush on her. Sasuke was more annoyed that he hadn’t just spit this out earlier rather than dragging them all the way to his apartment.

He held up a hand to silence his progressively panicking blonde friend. “Dobe, don’t you know what it feels like to have a crush?”

Naruto looked confused for a moment before realization took hold. “Ah… well… no?”

It was Sakura’s turn to be confused. “Nani? What do you mean no? You’ve been asking me out on dates since we met!”

Naruto gave her an odd look. “Ne, you mean I have to have a crush on you for that?”

Sakura was two seconds away from beating the whiskered boy black and blue before Sasuke stopped her. “Naruto, quit being so stupid. If you didn’t have a crush on Sakura why would you ask her out to begin with?”

Naruto rolled his eyes and reached between the couch cushions and pulled out a book. Both looked startled by the fact that was where he kept books but decided to brush it off as just another one of his oddities. “I… borrowed this book from one of those stores downtown when I was younger,” He handed it to Sakura, “The whole third chapter says that if you want to get a girl to notice you, you have to ask her out!”

Holding up the book to examine the title Sakura nearly face palmed. “ _Relationships for Dummies: Twelfth Edition_? Why would you… borrow something like this?” She asked handing it to Sasuke who began leafing through it.

Naruto blushed and looked away. “Well…um… when I was little I didn’t really have much contact with people… I didn’t really understand how to make friends or any of that but I wanted people to like me or at least acknowledge I was there…” Naruto’s eyes glazed over as if he was remembering something and both Sasuke and Sakura were sure something sad crossed his features like the distant sound of thunder. They shared another look. “Anyway, it said that if I wanted someone to notice me to ask them out on dates. So I thought that if I could get someone everyone liked to like me then it meant that I was acknowledged by someone. I didn’t know I had to like you like… _that_ to ask you out on a date!”

Sasuke found himself shaking his head at his friend. “How isolated _were_ you?” he asked and Naruto pursed his lips at him.

“Ne, ne, what do you mean?!” he whined back.

Sakura remained quiet as the two got into their usual arguments. She felt guilt after learning why the blonde had taken up asking her out. Considering the villagers’ treatment of him, he was just trying to prove that someone didn’t hate him. And what had she done? Hit him and call him names and ostracize him further. What kind of person does that? She had always thought that she was a good person. She always did what her parents had told her and got good grades in school; she had had a lot of friends but now it appeared that she was lacking in the empathy department. Well no more. She considered Naruto her friend and it was time to start acting like it. She squared her shoulders and looked at Naruto with an intense gaze.

“Naruto, you have a crush on Hinata. I can’t really say how you should go about it because as far as I know Hinata is really shy. She barely talked in class and when she did, she stuttered a lot. But she’s really nice.” She rattled off, giving him all the information she had on the girl.

Sasuke caught on to what she was trying to do and followed her lead. “She’s really good at taijutsu and was right beneath Sakura for Kunoichi of the Year. You could’ve done worse.” Sasuke shrugged. “I think its ridiculous you’re freaking out over this though.”

Naruto pouted at him. “Just wait until _you_ have a crush on someone!” He said crossing his arms.

“Hn..” Sasuke grunted at him and crossed his arms. Sakura shook her head at the two but stood.

“Naruto we have to go talk to Kakashi-sensei about training, I think you should go talk to Hokage-sama or Tsunade-sama about this. Maybe they can help you.” She smiled kindly at him.

Naruto’s eyes went wide and he grinned at her. “You’re right Sakura! Jiji probably has loads of experience with girls!”

He hopped up and left not even locking the door behind him. They looked at each other, then shrugged. There were always weird things that Naruto did that normal people wouldn’t do, they were slowly learning that that was just how Naruto was.

They closed the door and locked it before making their way to one of the training grounds that they were sure their sensei was at.

When they arrived, they were met with Kakashi and Zabuza resting after what appeared to be an intense training session. Kakashi lazily looked over at them as they walked up.

“Maa, maa what are you two doing here? We don’t have training today.”

“We need to talk about Naruto.” Sasuke sat down and crossed his legs.

Kakashi’s one visible eyebrow rose. Sasuke began to explain what they had experienced and what Naruto had told them. The scarecrow looked surprised that the blonde had volunteered so much information. He was usually very cagey when asked about his childhood, but he supposed that it was a testament to what Team 7 meant to him. It gave him a warm feeling to know that for at least one of them, his team was a safe haven. That warm feeling promptly turned into nausea when Sakura spoke for the first time.

“Kakashi-sensei, did the civilians ever… hurt Naruto?” Sasuke looked startled at her words and looked back at their sensei for an answer.

“Why would you ask that?” Kakashi asked, slowly.

“When we were walking through the market… a cart came out of nowhere and almost ran Naruto over. I thought I saw someone duck behind an alley when I tried to see where it came from. If he wasn’t a ninja he could’ve been seriously hurt.” She supplied, worry in her voice. “So do you think it’s possible that… the civilians could’ve hurt Naruto like that before?”

Kakashi grimaced at this line of questioning. He was thrilled that they were taking a genuine interest in their teammate and they even seemed to care for him, but this was dangerous territory they were treading and a part of him wanted to break the Third’s law just to get some vindication. He had been preaching for years that the villager’s posed a real threat to Naruto both emotionally and physically but the Hokage had summarily told him that besides giving him ANBU guardians there wasn’t much he could do. Afterall, they could agree with them with their mouths but would commit treason with their hearts.

The fact that Kakashi had sided with Tsunade and Jiraiya about moving him to a place where he could be free from their hate was enough to force the Hokage to make them stay in the shadows. That was until Tsunade came across him being beaten by a few civilians. He had been malnourished and had several injuries. That argument had all three of them ready to defect. Only then had the Hokage relented. He had set the boy up with an apartment and had given them free access to him. Tsunade had been all too happy to act as his grandmother and the silver haired man had easily wormed his way into the permanent position of his ANBU guard protecting him as much as he could when Sarutobi didn’t need him for assassination missions. Still he could never for the life of him figure out why he allowed the mistreatment of Naruto. Maybe it truly was simply because of bureaucratic red tape.

He focused back on his kids who were awaiting an answer. “Naruto is safe in Konoha’s walls now that he is a shinobi.” He looked back at his book, wondering if they would catch on to what he was trying to tell them. The fact that they had gone rigid with rage, meant that they had.

“Why?” Sasuke asked, quietly.

“The answer to that is far above my pay grade.” They immediately stood and left the clearing.

“You just unleashed two irate genin on your kage.” Zabuza said, cleaning his sword.

“Meh, he deserves it.” He flipped the page casually, because no matter what they did to the Hokage, he would be far too guilty to properly punish them. _‘Retribution is better than vindication.’_

Naruto sprinted to the Hokage tower with all the speed of a man on a mission. He ran up the steps of the building dodging Chunin and secretaries until he finally pushed open the door and ran right into a body, toppling them both.

When he heard Kiba start cursing, he didn’t want to open his eyes because he just knew he had ran into the topic of his thoughts. When he did open his eyes, he practically floated off her. He began to sputter out apologies to her as he helped her up.

“I-I’m so sorry Hinata-chan! I didn’t mean to run into you again! I swear!” he stuttered out.

She couldn’t even look at him as her face grew more and more red as he began dusting her off. Kiba had yet to stop cursing and Kurenai was trying to calm him down.

“That’s twice now! There is no way this is an accident!” He cried.

“Kiba how could he have possibly known she was there. Now calm down.” She scolded.

Shino remained impassive, silently observing the commotion. He felt oddly incensed, he had wanted the two to have another opportunity to speak. He considered his team to be like his colony. It was his job to oversee their health and wellness. He believed it would be beneficial if the two genin befriended each other. Even if his bugs wouldn’t go near Naruto, he was sure the boy would be a positive influence on his friend.

As Sarutobi watched the stuttering mess that Naruto seemed to turn into upon meeting with the young Hyuuga he suddenly felt a sharp ping of regret. If not for his own ignorance, Naruto would not have the problems he currently had when faced with socializing. He wouldn’t have had the same upbringing and he would’ve been much happier. Privately, when he looked at Naruto, his heart lurched in his chest upon remember his own mistakes and he felt slightly sick. Sick because even with everything he had known about Naruto at birth, including the gift Kami had given him, he had been no better than the villagers.

Everyone had lost so much during the Kyuubi attack, including him. At the front of his mind was his wife. She had been tasked with delivering Naruto but had been killed when it escaped. His rational mind knew that Naruto had had nothing to do with her death. But still the part of him that had grieved his wife wondered if it had been someone else trusted to help in his delivery would she still be by his side today. That part of him had been lenient with the village’s treatment of Naruto. He hadn’t fought quite as hard as he should’ve in his grief and because of that the civilians believed they could do as they pleased. It had set a precedent and they had gone too far in their rage. When Tsunade had brought a dirty blonde boy to his office, he was faced with the reality of what he had allowed, what he had caused. He vowed that he would do everything he could for the boy but by then the civilians were stuck in their ways. He had gone so far as to force the more respected merchants into classes that taught them the basic theory of fuinjutsu and they seemed to understand that though a kunai may be sealed inside, a scroll was still a scroll. However that logic seemed to skip right over the whiskered boy and when he understood that he suddenly realized it was too late. Now here he was stuttering out apologies to a girl he obviously had a crush on partly due to the fact that he had never been given the opportunity to love or be loved and it was all Sarutobi’s fault. The knowledge of that, made him feel his age.

“Kurenai you and your team are being given four days of leave. You are dismissed.” He said interrupting the awkward scene before him in an attempt at helping the boy.

“Thank you, Lord Third.” Kurenai led her team out of the office with a knowing smile on her face.

Naruto’s previously tense shoulder’s sagged once they left. He turned to his Jiji with wide eyes. “Gah! Jiji that was so embarrassing! Why did I have to run into her again!?” He began to pace back and forth.

“Naruto-kun, what was that about? It’s almost like you have a crush on young Hinata.” He teased, pushing down his mounting guilt.

“Ne, stop teasing me Jiji! What should I do? She’s so… gahh! And I can’t even talk around her its like putting grapes in my mouth and trying to speak!” Naruto threw himself onto the couch in the corner.

“I’m very glad to see you forming relationships, even if they are awkward. As far as advice goes, I believe it best that you start off slow. Get to know her, perhaps ask her to have dinner with you or train together. Hinata is a sweet girl you shouldn’t be afraid that she will turn you down, even if she isn’t interested in you romantically, she will be more than pleased to be your friend.” He suggested wondering if Jiraiya were here would he attempt to give the boy one of his books. Most likely. “And remember, Naruto, always be yourself.”

“That’s a great idea, Jiji! I knew you would give me good advice you always do.” Naruto smiled and stood near the window peaking down as if checking to see something. His eyes zeroed in on Team 8 leaving the building and called out to them. “HEY, HINATA!” he yelled at the top of his lungs and honestly Hiruzen couldn’t help but laugh at the boy’s enthusiasm.

Suddenly the boy launched himself towards the ground and the Third Hokage jumped up to make sure the boy hadn’t hurt himself. Instead he found that the blonde was talking quite loudly to the Hyuuga girl, though her teammate didn’t look very happy about it.

“Will you come eat lunch with me! I wanna be friends with you!” He said, straight to the point as usual. For Hinata’s part, she probably resembled something like a fish to him.

Naruto-kun was actually asking _her_ out to lunch? Only in her wildest dreams did this opportunity arise. She had loved him for as long as she could remember and had silently watched him in the shadows and now, she could stand beside him and be his friend and maybe one day something more. She nearly fainted right there but then she realized he was waiting for an answer. “Y-yes o-of c-c-cour-rse, N-Naruto-kun.” She managed and he grinned and grabbed her hand and _dragged_ her off with him without further conversation.

Somehow, Hiruzen felt just a little better. That is until Naruto’s teammates knocked on his door. “Enter.” He called sitting back at his desk.

He smiled at the two despite the angered looks on their faces. “Sasuke, Sakura, what can I do for you? Naruto just left.” He supplied, even though he knew they were here about something else far more troublesome.

“Hokage-sama, how could you allow the villagers to harm Naruto?” To his surprise it was Sakura who slammed her hands down on his desk. His eyes narrowed at the topic even as he ignored the lurch in his heart at the question. He took a moment to examine the two’s faces. They seemed outraged, which he understood, however, the topic of discussion circled around a S-Rank secret. He had to ascertain whether or not they knew the reason Naruto was treated the way he was or if they were simply angered by something, they had most likely picked up by hanging around the blonde.

“As far as I know Naruto has only been hurt physically by the villager’s once and they were dealt with quickly.” Hiruzen steepled his hands in front him. “How have you come to know about the villager’s treatment of Naruto-kun?”

“We saw how they were glaring at him in the market.” Sasuke said, observing the way their Hokage was subtly interrogating them. The monkey inwardly sighed on the inside, so they had come to him because of the villager’s glares, he hated to say it but that was a relief. They couldn’t know about the Kyuubi else he worried for their reaction.

“And a cart almost ran him over too!” Sakura cut in. Hiruzen wasn’t in the least bit surprised at that. ANBU had trailed the blonde for as long as he had known about the physical abuse of the boy, there was a room filled with filing cabinets of reports of attempted assaults and assassination attempts on him. This wasn’t the first time he had heard of a wild merchant’s cart, though it was the first time it since he became a shinobi. The civilians were generally more wary of the shinobi of the village, it wasn’t a secret they were trained killers. They more often than not gave them more respect.

The fact that the civilians were comfortable with attempting hurting Naruto spoke loudly of the fact that they didn’t think they would be punished. Hiruzen didn’t like that at all. To hurt one shinobi was to hurt the overall forces. Considering this was a military dictatorship, though much more lenient than any other, that could be considered treason.

There was of course the fact that Hiruzen considered the boy to be like his own grandson. That part of him, had him considering shadowing the boy until he could ascertain who was a threat so that he could properly neutralize them. He had trouble keeping that part of him at bay especially since his guilt was overwhelming.

“Hokage-sama, you’re close to Naruto, so how could you let them treat him like that? Sure, Naruto used to pull pranks and cause trouble, but for everyone act as though he was the cause of some huge catastrophe is going overboard.” Sakura vented. If Sarutobi was a lesser shinobi he would’ve flinched at her words, as it stood he didn’t even clench his jaw.

“I can not force the villagers to like Naruto. The Hokage is influential but it cannot sway those who are unswayable. The animosity they feel towards Naruto is a deep wound that I had hoped would heal with time.” He leaned back in his chair and lit his pipe.

“Why do they hate him? From the way Naruto seems used to their treatment and from the way you talk this must have been going on for years. Maybe even since he was younger.” Sasuke cut in and Hiruzen cursed himself. It had been years since he had the opportunity to speak with an Uchiha. He had forgotten how observant and analytical they were and had been loose with his tongue as a result. He truly was losing his touch.

He took a drag of his pipe and gave them a considering glance. “Naruto was the only child born the night of the Kyuubi attack,” they looked surprised at that, “his parents died shortly after and because of that many in the village believe him to be cursed. It’s an irrational line of thinking but many lives were lost and many more were grief stricken. The only way they could cope was to blame it partially on Naruto, believing him to be an omen of some sort. They have hated him ever since.

“I have tried to fix the relationship he has with them but as a result of his isolation Naruto sought their attention even if it was bad attention. Unfortunately, that was the only attention they were willing to give.”

Sasuke listened with a blank expression, he took in all the information and it sort of made since but he couldn’t help but think something was missing. Sakura felt the same way but she wasn’t quite sure how to pry it out of him. This was the Hokage, God of Shinobi and the student of two previous kage. He wouldn’t just tell them if they kept pushing.

“Why was he not adopted? If not by you why not by Tsunade-sama?” Sakura asked.

Hiruzen had no answer for that without giving away that he was truly the container. He remained silent. Sasuke glared then. “Do you also see Naruto as a bad omen? A cursed child?” Hiruzen wasn’t prepared for that question, it had punched him in the gut with it’s directness. His jaw did clench before he answered as a wave of nausea and panic attempted to take hold. He pushed it down. “I love Naruto just as I love my own grandson.”

“You didn’t answer the question, Hokage-sama.” Sasuke stood and slammed his hands on his desk. “Naruto may have been born the same night as the Kyuubi attack. His parents may have died as a result of it, but everything he has done to the villagers was because they can’t see past their ignorance. All he wanted was someone to notice him, he had no control of anything.”

Sasuke’s voice stayed in the same monotone but it was as if he had shouted it. Hiruzen slumped in his seat as the raven turned and left with a quiet Sakura trailing behind.

“I’ve always wondered why you were so lenient at first.” A gravelly voice carried over the silence of the office. Sarutobi didn’t even look up from his lap.

Jiraiya sat on the ledge of the window, a soft wind carried through his spiky white hair. “Naruto has suffered so greatly because of my failings. I have tried to amend them, and I have tried to give him a normal childhood, but though my mouth agreed, my heart was set to commit treason.”

The toad sage sighed and rubbed his temples. He was angry at his sensei, but he also knew the grief he had gone through. He had wanted to pull away and turn his back on his godson and he had to some extent because when he looked into those familiar blue eyes he saw the man he had practically raised and the woman that had married him. He understood but Naruto deserved much more than what he had been given. “Let’s just get to training.”

Hiruzen stood and they disappeared from the office and towards the training grounds.

As the days passed and Team 7 came back to active duty once again Sasuke and Sakura had confronted Naruto about the treatment he received from those around him. They apologized about their own involvement and assured him that they were friends and that if he needed anything he could come to them without any hesitation. Naruto felt as though a weight had been lifted from him, privately he knew that a part of him had some animosity towards the villagers and anyone who had treated him differently as well. That included his teammates and though they had become tentative friends he hadn’t felt as though they were truly friends, simply comrades fighting the same fight. He had reasoned that personality didn’t matter on the battlefield, only that they lived. It meant the world to him that they apologized for their part in what had been and still was a sort of hell for him because if even one person acknowledged him, nothing else mattered.

With this new found trust the team had, Kakashi along with Zabuza trained them into the ground. Kakashi was pleased with how well they took to the intense training. He taught them everything from ANBU hand signs to espionage. He wanted them to be well rounded shinobi before they began specializing too much. The Chuunin Exams were three months away and he fully expected them to be ready for them. He even taught them the little Fuinjutsu he knew. Well he was still teaching Sasuke and Sakura fuinjutsu, Naruto had drunk up all the information he and Zabuza had on the topic before outpacing both of them but that didn’t surprise Kakashi considering he was an Uzumaki.

Individually, they worked on their own abilities. Naruto continued working with Ikari privately on his Taijutsu. The blonde was quickly becoming Chuunin level in the art but considering the time difference of being in his mindscape it was not as surprising. Though when his teammates questioned his progress, Naruto had no choice but to explain the full extent of his abilities. They were shocked but surprisingly accepting. Sasuke began challenging him to taijutsu spars in order to catch up and even branched out from his clan Interceptor Style. Naruto was also being taught advanced chakra control techniques to get his control up to par. It was silly to have more chakra than the Hokage when he couldn’t control the output. Kakashi sought to fix that once and for all by teaching him the water walking exercise and then elemental manipulation. Considering Naruto could create dozens of clones that could transfer memories to him, he also had small groups of no more than four work on learning and mastering several water and wind jutsu. The groups were small because Kakashi had theorized that the mental strain of creating hundreds of clones to serve as cannon fodder was not equal to creating clones to actually complete mental tasks. He did not want to deal with a brain-dead Naruto even if he would heal from the strain within a few hours, having it happen once was certainly scary enough. Especially considering Tsunade had nearly choked the scarecrow to death.

Naruto had also taken a great interest in espionage, trap-making and information gathering. Considering he was a prank master, those weren’t at all shocking but learning the theory behind those skills had opened a whole new world up for the blonde. He had never considered that he could combine his love of pranking to the life of being a ninja. That combined with his growing knowledge of fuinjutsu had many in the village scared for their lives. As it were Kakashi had taken to giving the boy ‘assassination’ missions to bolster his skills. As far as Kakashi was concerned no one was safe, especially not the ANBU, who were initially not prepared for wide scale attacks. Kakashi had made a deal with the ANBU Commander, Naruto would only get in trouble if they could prove he had done it and the punishments wouldn’t be too serious just unpleasant enough to deter him from getting caught. It also worked to force the ANBU to take their training seriously. They had grown lazy since the last war but having a twelve-year-old outwit them was humiliating enough to get them back on track.

As far as his training with Ikari went, it was at a standstill. In order to fully utilize the powers within him, he had to have a pure soul. He couldn’t have hate in his heart, or pain from past memories. In other words, the anger he hid even from himself that he held for the villagers that mistreated him and the emotional wounds he still held on to were dampening his progress with Ikari. Naruto had easily forgiven his teammates but that did not go for the rest of the village. He could not, no matter how hard he tried, forgive someone that did not want to be forgiven. Each time he walked by a villager’s glaring face, he remembered the nights alone, the days he had to forage in trashcans for food because the matron at the orphanage had kicked him out, and the day some of the villagers had attacked him. Though, those times were long gone he still held a dislike for them. He was a child, even in their grief why couldn’t they have seen that? Because of this he had only learned one technique from his leopard guide, **Yuki no Mai: Hogo**. It was meant to do exactly as the name suggested, protect. It created thick shields of ice that were impenetrable depending on the mastery level. He wouldn’t be able to master it; however, due to his current emotional state so he had focused on training with Kurama. They had found that meditation helped with the rage that overcame him when using the nine tails chakra. Of course, they couldn’t do much training considering how volatile his chakra was, that is until Naruto stumbled upon suppression seals. He had successfully turned his closet into a suppression chamber but he was still only on one tail worth of power.

Upon learning that Naruto was better than him in Taijutsu and had the potential to outpace him in Ninjutsu, Sasuke threw himself even further into his work. He had immediately asked Kakashi for help with his newly awakened Sharingan, he decided early on that it was impossible to keep up with Naruto’s learning curve. The blonde had a year and a half of training in only his Taijutsu, he wasn’t catching up with that with just hard work. He needed his own ace, so he worked on leveling up his Sharingan to three tomeo. Kakashi had also given him weights and suggested that he ask Might Guy for tips to better enhance his speed and Taijutsu. By the second month he was working to incorporate Tiger style into the Uchiha’s Interceptor Style. His progress was steady, and he was pleased with the results. When Kakashi decided to take Kurenai up on her offer of collaborative training, Sasuke found he enjoyed Genjutsu more than he initially thought he would. That was when Kakashi decided he should learn how to cast Genjutsu with his eyes. By the middle of the second month, it was clear that Sasuke had the potential to be a Genjutsu master. He truly enjoyed casting Genjutsu on the blonde when he wasn’t paying attention just for the fun of it. It usually took an embarrassingly long time for the blonde to notice which sparked a game of tag between the budding Fuinjutsu and Genjutsu masters.

When Zabuza began to teach them the basics of Kenjutsu, Sasuke’s interest was piqued. His progress was steady, but he felt as though the tanto he had chosen belonged in his hand. He was also pretty sure Zabuza was more than happy to have someone to pass his knowledge down to. The swordsman would wake him up at odd times for spars and random training. Of course, it made it even worse that both him and Haku were staying in the Uchiha compound. After the massacre it had remained empty so he thought it would be a waste of time for the two of them to search for an apartment when they could simply be sponsored by him at the price of training.

Kakashi boosted his Ninjutsu by giving him two fire and lightning jutsu each. Upon mastering them, Kakashi promised him that he would teach him elemental manipulation and was bestowed the cyclops own original assassination technique; the **Chidori**. By the end of the final month he could only perform the technique twice reliably, but Kakashi had assured him that his progress was normal considering it had taken him years to create it and another six months to master it.

Out of the three Genin, Sakura was the one who had the most progress. In the beginning, her only redeeming quality was her knowledge. Theory had always come easy for her and that was advantageous when it came to learning medical jutsu. She was however, severely lacking when it came to the physical aspects of being a Kunoichi. In order to remedy that, Tsunade and Kakashi worked together to properly condition her body. She wore weights and had the second most strenuous physical training out of her two teammates. She had also abandoned her diet the first day after a long lecture about diet and nutrition for Kunoichi by Shizune. When she had eaten both the light dinner her mother usually prepared for her and the usual dinner with an extra helping her parents were floored. Not just because this was out of the ordinary behavior but also because they were both merchants, successful merchants. Which meant that Sakura was the heir to a business that was valued at a small fortune. When her mother made it clear that if she continued to eat that much she would surely gain weight, Sakura explained that she was working those calories off and that as a Kunoichi it was almost impossible to become overweight as long as she continued her training.

Her parents had a different idea, however. They revealed that they had wanted her to quit playing ninja after the Chuunin exams so that she could begin learning how to operate the family business. Having refused outwardly, they threw her out claiming she would only be welcomed when she was ready to become the heir she was meant to be. That night she had run blindly to Sasuke’s compound. He had calmed her, despite how uncomfortable he was, with Haku’s assistance and had put her to bed in his own room to ensure she would be alright.

After that night, Sakura was determined to prove to her parents and herself that she was more than just a shopkeeper. She wanted to be strong, so she pleaded with Tsunade to begin teaching her the fundamentals of Slug style. That was when her training truly took off. She used her growing knowledge of medicine to speed up her weight training. Her already above average strength began to rival Rock Lee’s strength. Her taijutsu matched Sasuke’s own level and she could deliver crippling blows using chakra scalpels to cut through tendons and muscles. It relied greatly on speed despite its name, so she sparred with Rock Lee and Kakashi when she could although Naruto was also a very good training partner. Kakashi worked with her to expand her jutsu library and to develop her hard and soft skills. Though she was a wiz with genjutsu due to her near perfect reserves she preferred the straightforwardness of a combat medic. However, when Kakashi asked Anko, the second in command of the TI department to speak with them about the basics of her craft, Sakura was starstruck much to the horror of her teammates. When she wasn’t training with her team or Tsunade, she could often be found observing low priority interrogation sessions.

Finally, Sakura also came to love Shizune’s own craft of poison making. She didn’t want to become too dependent on close combat and thought that branching out a bit when it came to medicine was a smart idea. It didn’t hurt that she could deliver toxins to less than aware enemies and that poison making made information gathering from those she was interrogating much easier.

Sasuke and Naruto both agreed never to make Sakura angry purely because of her specialties. She had joined them in their game of extreme tag and they still felt a bit nauseous at the thought of ramen, though that didn’t do much to deter Naruto from his favorite food.

All in all, Team 7 had safely become the strongest team out of the Rookie Nine, though Team 8 was close behind. With Naruto hanging out with Hinata more and more, the rest of their teams saw much more of each other and Kurenai thought that they should also take part in a more serious training regimen. Kurenai, wanting her team to be stronger while also wanting them to be happy, ensured that the blonde and the heiress trained exclusively together most days. Kakashi didn’t have much of a problem with this considering that while Naruto pushed Hinata to actually try to harm him, something she struggled with, Hinata was the only one out of their age group that could match him blow for blow. Kiba and Shino soon became much more proficient in their clans’ styles and weren’t far behind, so Kurenai was more than happy with her decision to join Kakashi and surprisingly the Hokage in setting the two Genin up with each other. It had resulted in her team’s boon and even a friendly rivalry with Asuma’s team. After hearing about how hard they both were pushing their teams, he had begun to whip them into shape as well. They were quickly catching up to Kurenai’s team and had joined in with their collaborative training.

With the Chuunin Exams a week away, they had decided to nominate all their teams, all positive that they had a good chance of passing. That night, they decided to have a dinner to unveil the surprise nominations. All the Genin weren’t as surprised as they thought they would be but between Shikamaru’s observation skills and Naruto’s information gathering skills they had safely come to a conclusion about why all the Jounins had disappeared.

They ended the night on a high note after they had had their fill of barbeque. Hinata stuttered out a goodbye after Naruto had hugged the life out of her and followed her teammates to the Clan District along with the rest of Team 10. Sasuke and Sakura, who had since moved in permanently with her teammates, gave one last goodbye before setting off to the Uchiha Compound. Naruto watched his sensei and his colleagues disappear one after another before making the quiet trip home.

The journey was lonely as it always was, but he didn’t mind. The silence of the night allowed him time to think and decompress from the long day of training he had. He looked up at the moon as it disappeared behind adjacent buildings as he walked. It was a full moon and the light spilled across Konoha as though it wasn’t night at all.

When he glanced up at the Hokage Mountain, he was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to go there. To stand upon the Fourth’s head and look down on the village he both loved and hated and so his feet carried him there.

He barely remembered the journey, but when his eyes laid upon the tops of the houses of Konoha he felt a peace he had only felt while standing in the wintered landscape of his mind. He watched the darkened streets that only held flashes of lights from the bars and brothels of the Akasen. It was beautiful, he decided. His eyes roamed over where he knew the Sarutobi clan compound was, the Senju, Hyuuga, Akamichi, Nara, Yamanaka, and Uchiha, and finally to where he knew the Jounin apartments were and they softened.

His life was here. Despite his feelings for the other villager’s he knew he would never trade this life for another. He was accepted and loved and that was enough. He wondered if that was normal. He chuckled to himself.

"How do you know you're normal?" Naruto asked quietly looking down at the Fourth's Head. The passage of wind accompanied his answer. "Everyone is normal, son. There are only quirks about us that make us unique." Naruto shivered at the apparition's words. "Son?"

He turned, stunned at the appearance of a woman. She was petite with long red hair and violet eyes. Though he had never seen her a day in his life, the look in her eyes were all too familiar. It was the same look he had seen in the mirror every day of his life.

“Mom?”

“That’s right Sochi.” She took a step forward and sat next to him. She smiled down at the village below and then at the fourth’s head. “It seems that Konoha thrived after the Kyuubi attacked. I’m glad.”

“H-how are you-?!” he stumbled, reaching out to touch her .

“Ikari helped.” She began, “when your father and I died, we both put the last of our chakra into the seal. It was meant as a safeguard to ensure the Kyuubi didn’t escape. Apparently, you two are on good terms, when my consciousness awoke and came face to face with Ikari, he explained everything up until now.”

She turned to him and gave him a sad smile. “I’m so sorry. Had I known what we were abandoning you to when I left to help your father, I would have been more careful, I didn’t thi-”

The blond launched himself into her lap, his face tear stained. “It’s not your fault, the Fourth had to do what he did. If not, then the village wouldn’t have survived.” And he wouldn’t have been able to make the friends that he had, to feel the things he did for those he cared for.

Her arms wrapped around him. “I know how you feel about the civilians that have wronged you. Your emotions are valid Naruto.” She said. “Ikari summoned me here using the same principle technique that you use to summon him. Since I’m not tied to your soul, he could do it without your knowledge. Normally, I would not last long, but he has fed me a large amount of nature energy. I can last as long as he can keep replenishing me.”

“So, it’s like you’ve come back from the dead?” He asked.

She laughed at the expression that was so much like his father’s. “Yes, Sochi.”

“We should definitely tell Jiji.” He said after a moment. They talked for a little while swapping stories from their past and Naruto felt just a little bit better, because for the first time he understood that if he had lived before the Kyuubi attack and had known his parents love and had lost them both, he didn’t think he could handle either.

So, when he and his mother raced each other to the Sarutobi clan house and banged on the old man’s door until the dogs from the Inuzuka kennels started howling, he felt just a bit lighter on his feet. And when the old man answered the door only to come face to face with Kushina Uzumaki, the Red-Hot Habanero, and her son, he smiled a genuine smile as the monkey passed out. The night would be long, sure, but at least now for the first time, his mother was right there with him and that was more than he had ever had before.


End file.
